#classical horror

I think I found a wonderful short story. Robert Louis Stevenson is truly spoiling me. Imagine if you will, the plot of crime and punishment by Dostoyevsky. And now add pondering about “if one is unable to do good, must he only do evil?” for all you Jekyll and Hyde girlies read this as a prelude of sorts, I wish the story was a bit more fleshed out but the concept itself? Yum.

Tommorrow my brith,,, things ive done latelt heart emoji

“While during the classical period [1931-1936] monsters were primarily evil characters who sinned against God, Mankind, and the Natural Order, now [in the 1940s] they were ‘tragic’ figures who, with the proper care, might be cured of their ‘unnatural lusts.’ The films made at Universal Studios, while ostensibly continuing the monster sagas of the 1930s, reflect a growing interest in psychiatry as a tool for correcting social deviance, but ultimately suggest that their monstrous contagions are beyond medical intervention. Those made at RKO under Val Lewton reflect a growing awareness of homosexuality, homosexual communities, and the dynamics of homosexual oppression as it was played out in society and the military. Indicative of these shifts towards an increasingly complex understanding of the monster, there was also less focus on a happy heterosexualized closure for the films—many eschewed the ‘normal’ couple altogether and instead focused solely on their queer protagonists, suggesting, as will the horror films of later decades, that it is the monster queer whom the audience really comes to see and identify with, and not the heterosexualized heroes and heroines.”

Reminder that my The Turn of the Screw weekly substack is starting the first Saturday in June! That’s June 3rd!